Not applicable.
Not Applicable.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention generally relate to an apparatus and a method for supporting patients during medical procedures. More particularly, the preferred embodiments of the present invention are directed to a movable medical patient support system with a pivot mechanism that provides for full motion and low table height.
There currently exists a wide range of medical patient support systems for medical applications, each designed to be used for specific medical procedures. However, in all cases, the medical patient support system includes two or three essential components. Usually, a patient table is attached to a supporting mechanism and a means to move the patient table in various directions, including up and down and/or side to side. The moving mechanism may be manually operated or may be power assisted. Because stopping a procedure to reposition a patient can be time-consuming and sometimes even dangerous, the ability to position patients quickly and accurately during medical procedures is important to clinicians.
Conventional medical patient support systems typically provide two degrees of freedom corresponding to 1) lateral roll and 2) tilt. The latter movement is also referred to trendelenburg motion. Although conventional medical patient support systems provide for full motion of the patient table, they do so at the expense of table design efficiency. The design inefficiency arises because conventional medical patient support systems are commonly comprised of one actuator that allows the table to tilt up and down and a separate actuator that allows the table to roll laterally. The joint which provides tilt capability includes a shaft on a bearing mechanism. The patient table rotates on this shaft in the tilt direction. However, the entire assembly supporting the bearing is situated on another shaft that supports rotation only in the lateral roll direction. Because these shafts, or pivot points, are stacked, the retracted height of conventional medical patient support systems is necessarily taller than it to would be in the absence of such stacking. And because the entire structure is rotated, requiring one of the actuators to roll and/or tilt with the other one, more physical space is consumed by this motion, resulting in an inefficient design that operates in a cumbersome manner.
A need, therefore, exists for an improved medical patient support system that provides a patient table permitting full motion of the patient table while providing a lower table height than currently exists in conventional medical patient support systems.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a medical patient support system comprising a patient table with a table pivot member. A patient support surface supporting a patient during a medical procedure is supported by a base which includes telescopic members to move the patient support surface vertically. A table pivot member connects the underside of the patient support surface, known as the pivot plate, to the base. The table pivot member enables the patient support surface to pivot in at least one of tilt and lateral roll directions with respect to the base. An actuating element comprised of at least two actuators is connected between the pivot plate and the base to drive the patient support surface in at least one of tilt or lateral roll directions.
One aspect of a preferred embodiment of the present invention is the use of at least two actuators to achieve the desired movement of the patient support surface. The actuators are arranged in a cross-shaft configuration, and work together to move the patient support surface in both tilt and lateral roll directions. Because the preferred embodiment of the claimed invention uses a cross-shaft, rather than a stacked, configuration, the effective retracted height of the patient table is shorter than that of conventional patient tables which employ stacked shafts.
Another aspect of a preferred embodiment of the present invention is the use of two actuators resulting in a smaller footprint and a more compact design.